


【Stony】Side By Side（Eng.ver）

by JingGHachisu



Category: Captain America (Movies), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (tony/omc) but just blowjob, Happy Ending, Live&Die&Repeat, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-03-12 01:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3339410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JingGHachisu/pseuds/JingGHachisu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark was sent to the front secretly to participate in the war which would never win.  He met the war hero Steve Rogers on the battlefield.  That was their first meeting but also the last one.  Tony fall into a time loop inexplicably.  He tried to save Steve again and again to win this fight.  Then he found that Steve had known him but pretended that he didn't. When he tried to find out the reason, he had gone back to yesterday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [【Stony】Side By Side/比肩而行](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1757567) by [JingGHachisu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JingGHachisu/pseuds/JingGHachisu). 



> · My English is not good enough. This must be a writing full of mistakes.  
> · Edge of Tomorrow AU, but it is quite different from the movie.  
> · Steve Rogers, 27 years old. Tony Stark, 22 years old.  
> · The howling commandos and the avengers both appear.  
> · Dirty words.  
> · Happy ending.  
> · This work has 150,000 words in Chinese. It has been finished already. I don't know whether I can finish the translation or not.  
> · All characters belong to MARVEL. All OOC because of me.  
> · 'asianwest' asked me if she can translate my work several months ago, and I said yes. I don't know what happened then...

Look up and you'll see the universe.

Yes, I mean, the universe.

 

**\- ZERO -**

They all use 'Visionary' , 'Genius' , 'American patriot' , 'Philanthropist' or something like that to describe me.  Of course, I know, they prefer 'Playboy' , 'Billionaire' , 'Madman' better to show my differences.

At age four, I built my first circuit board.  At age six, my first engine.  And at seventeen, I graduated from MIT... ... Blah, blah, blah, whatever.

People tended to make me as a unique 'freak' , I'm pretty sure it's a commendatory term, but I don't care actually.

No matter what, I believe that I had one thing in common with you once — when I was just a difficult kid to deal with, whenever my father was busy in his laboratory until night, I'd open the skylight and look up at the stars.  Wondered if there was life up there.

_'Life will never let you down.'_

I'd like to use this sentence to summarize what had happened these years, but it seems a little inappropriately.

The first attack occurred in France.  No one foresaw this disaster.  I was 21 that year and succeeded to the new CEO of Stark Industries.  It's called 'The prodigal son returns' in media. 

That was a normal Saturday.  People spent the holiday like always.  No one would look up at the sky to find what was different in the daytime.

 

*******************

_A baby boy was lying in his cradle beside the lawn of Tuileries Park.  "MA, MAMAPA!"  He had noticed something unusual.  He extended his little arm to the hole in the sky which was becoming bigger and bigger.  More and more 'Easter eggs' were dropping down through the hole.  "Ah, Ah, MAMA!"  The baby boy waved his limbs excitedly to attract attention on the mother._

_"Honey, what do you see?"  The mother stroked her son's soft belly to make him quiet._

_When the shadow had landed on their head, it was too late._

*******************

 

Aliens had occupied several European countries centres on France.  They were invading other countries around fairly fast at the same time.

Three months ago, the world had gotten together to fight back.  They'd never been like this fast before.

The day after Poland had fallen, the United Defense Force had been founded.

We had black days once.  We have lost Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Italy and Spain.  Portugal still supports, but the situation is not optimistic.

We can't lose more.

These huge, many-legged, alien monsters!

This bad situation, even worse, continued to the next year, we began to have everything under control.  We stand our ground below the snowlines of the Ural and the Himalayas, lead by Russia and China in Eurasia.  Meanwhile, the European Union, Britain and the United States start to lay siege to the mimics from the coastline. 

The war has never gone smooth like recently from the beginning.

 

_—— Anthony Edward Stark_

 

**- 01 -**

Tony Stark was waked up by uniform footsteps and resounding voice.  He felt groggy and drowsy.  Damn, he shouldn't drink that much last night.  Tony rubbed his temples and wiped the face with his left hand.  The feeling of a hangover was too familiar to him.  Goddamn it.  He must show up in the weapon trade fair today.  That would decide the main customers the Stark Industries would be faced with in the next year.

Tony hated dealing with the government.  That didn't mean he hates money.  On the contrary, he could make more money by selling things to the government.  He just got bored dealing with senators or supervisors.  They only spoke meaningless bureaucratic jargon.  That was a waste of time.  This was Obadiah Stane's work before.  After Howard Stark's death, Obadiah had supported the whole company by his own until Tony came back. 

"Now that you decide to take over your father's business, you should be acquainted with and start to learn all these."  He talked to his best friend's son, "I'm an old man, Tony, this company shouldn't have depended on me all along.  It's still called Stark."

And Senator Stern, whose testicles were even replaced by fat, was Tony's new client.  It was difficult to imagine how he became the top.  Obviously, shaking fat and a small brain could't help him.

Tony rubbed his eyes again.  He dragged himself into a sitting posture.  It was not comfortable here.  Tony felt some pain in his back, no, he felt various pain all over.

"Mr. Stark, if you won't hand over the blueprint and relevant information of Jericho, I swear, you will pay."  Shrieked Stern. The voice was not enough deterrent for Tony because of Stern's over-fat, but it had continued to hurt Tony's ears.  "And you would not like that."

Tony didn't care three straws for him.

"Soldier!  What time are you going to get up?" a thunder exploded over Tony's head.

It was not like a dream with a vibration under his body.  The bag beneath his head was kicked by someone.

"What did you call me?"  Tony tried to adjust his eyes to the light.  He looked around — here was not his cottage in Malibu, but neither was his Manhattan flat.

Tony was shocked.  He jumped up from the ground.  This action made him feel dizzy and everything went black for a few seconds because of sudden hypotension.  That might cause insufficient blood supply to the brain.  He staggered up and was catched by the man beside him.

"This is not a recruit should be dressed in."

Tony could see the man who berated him now.  A tall black man, who had strong muscles, giving him an air of military authority, looked hard to communicate.

Tony looked down at his creased but expensive suits, nodded, "I'm glad that you can see this......"  He narrowed his eyes to see the black's rank, "Colonel." Tony straightened up his back, collected himself together to make him look less untidy.  "As you can see, I'm not a new recruit.  I'm sorry I can't remember how I get to this......  Well......  Camp.  I request to see your commander."

"We only have recruits here, nothing else."  the black colonel stared at Tony's face with doubt.

"Colonel Rhodes, leave this man to me.  You can go now."  A man in black came up.  He motioned him away from a distance.

This goverment official looked cordial and friendly in Tony's eyes.  This should be the first time.  Gods knew how much he hated these people before. 

"Nice to meet you, sir.  There must be some misunderstanding.  I'm Tony Stark, a normal businessman.  Maybe I came here with Senator Stern yesterday.  I drank too much last night.  And I have a weapon trade fair to attend this afternoon.  It's getting late.  I hope I can leave here as soon as possible."  He patted his pocket, said embarrassingly, "Apparently, I have lost my stark-phone."

"It's an honor to have you as a guest, Mr. Stark."  Suit man smiled and reached out his hand to shake Tony's.  "You can call me Phil."  He loosened the tie to help himself breathe easier.  "I just can't get used to these suits."  He glanced at Tony's silver gray suit, "Bureaucracy, you know that." said Phil with a shrug.

 

Tony moved deep into the camp with Phil and four guards.  They talked and smiled like old friends.

"Is this New Jersey or Miami?" asked Tony, "I mean here."

"Oh no, we are in Cyprus."  It was like a joke.  Phil laughed, "Sorry." said he.  But his apology didn't sound sincerely.

"Cyprus?  The Eurasian front?!"  Tony stared at Phil with wide eyes and increased the volume, "Wait!  What day is it today?"

"Jun.8.  What's wrong?"

_I have slept for three days?!_

A terrible thought hit Tony suddenly.  He thought he might have been kidnapped maliciously.  At the thought Tony stopped, took hold of Phil's arm to make him turn and face Tony himself.  This action created tension around.  Tony sweared he heard a series of faint, sharp noise resounding.  It was the guards cocking their guns.  But he had no time to care about at this moment.

"You won't let me go, would you?  The tarmac is on the other side." said he seriously.

"Well, well."  Phil stretched out his hand and stopped the guards.  The smile on his face suddenly disappeared, "The show is over.  I received an order to watch you."

"Watch me?  Why?" puzzled Tony, "I offer weapons to your men!  Look at the Stark Industries logo around you!"

"You still want to play the CEO role-playing game, do you?" said Phil impatiently.  He moved his right hand forward.  Showing the micro stun gun Tony, "Do you want to try?"

The worst envision had been confirmed.  Several solutions popped into Tony's head, but none of them seemed to be suitable for this situation.  These men didn't believe him.  He couldn't beat anyone here also.  He would be caught before he had taken the third step.  And they would give him hell.  Tony was not that stupid, so he just stood there.

"Senator Stern's order, Anthony Stark, you are nobody besides the name same as the rich playboy.  You are a trickster and deserter.  Senator warned definitely, you would use the name to muddle through.  But do you know how we treat a deserter?" said Phil, with the stun gun shaking in his hand.  "I hope you'll never repeat the mistake."  He pulled Tony who stood transfixed into a tent on the right, "Welcome to the Team Avengers."

Five soldiers, with hair in different colors.  They looked not-so-friendly.  When Phil came in, they all stood to attention and saluted.  And then, they all began to stare at Tony.  These soldiers, four men and a woman, fanned out across the tent.  A muscular man with a buzz cut was just wiping his huge steel bow before this meeting.  A black-hair giant had sepctacular muscle, he looked green because of the oil on his skin.  A tall man with blond hair and beard had a strange hammer beside his left hand.  A dark-skinned man looked Tony up and down with a banter expression on his face.  And the only female member, looked neither worried nor cared about living with a group of men.  Actually she seemed can beat everyone here easily.

"Wow, did you prepare to attend a evening party?" said the dark-skinned young man, he lifted his shoulders and spread his hands as it was something joke that could have made everyone laugh for a year.

"This is Tony, I'm afraid he has had rich experience in escaping.  So you must watch him carefully." said Phil.

"A deserter!"  Someone whistled, sounded like one of gossips outside.

"Group strength training after ten minutes." said Phil, he looked at Tony again, "And remember calling me General Coulson, Mr. Stark."

 

This was the worst situation Tony had ever faced.  He didn't know how to escape from this damn camp.  He could not even contact with his assistant, Miss Potts.  Here was no telephone, mobile phone, computer, even radio. 

He didn't like exercise also.  He played boxing just for fun.  Sometimes he ran or swam, with beauties around him of course.  Now, he was surrounded by a group of muscular men who smelt like they just ran a marathon.  Actually, they were running with 30 pounds of weight on their back right now. 

Tony found his feet were lead and his arms tied to his sides with a strong sense of undeveloped asthma.  And those soldiers just ran as usual. 

The team made a left turn and a huge building appeared.  That was once a crude garage.  A large recruitment poster was painted on the ten meters tall wall. 

Steve 'angel of Verdun' Rogers, of course, Tony had heard of him, everybody knew him.  Tony once promoted his weapons with that man's photo.  After all, he did business with the government.  But the Mars seemed dislike his products. Rogers preferred cold weapon more besides the jacket technology created by Stark Industries.  Epee and shield, were you kidding?

The perfect proportions of body, the golden hair and blue eyes, were all surrounded by metal and machinery.  He trod on a giant stone by his right foot with a huge sword in his right hand and a shield in his left.  He looked powerful and firm.

"Captain America!" Someone in the group shouted with loud whistles.  All people, men or women, they loved the angel of Verdun.  Because he was Michael in the war, he waved his star shield giving human victories.  He was enough shining to Tony.

"Can we met him on the battlefield tomorrow?" said someone around.

_What?  Tomorrow?!_

Tony stopped in shock.  He was pushed on the back, "Hope you can move on, Greenie." someone mocked and more people joined in, "I bet he cannot live over 5 minutes on the beach tomorrow!"

 

-TBC-


	2. - 02 -

**\- 02 -**

 

 

"Listen, we are going to land on the coast of Manfredonia."  The UDF flung all the men they had into this raid.  Thousands of transport aircraft hopped off at two in the morning from Cyprus, the Eurasian front base.  Colonel Rhodes was wearing a heavy jacket of Model 'Pioneer' with enough firepower.  He beat the fixators which could keep soldiers safe in rhythm as he spoke.  "Proofread your system time now!  Two minutes to drop!"

Before this comeback had been organized, the decision-making level of UDF firmly believed that human being had had the biggest advantage to fight back with some grapevine from nowhere.  They planned this joint battle in secret.  It had been the greatest war in history.  They tried to suppress the mimics aliens to the Italy and Austria borders at one stroke.

"This will be a legend in the field of human conflict!" said the press center, they had invited Tony to the live broadcast to comment on this fight privately.

Ironically Tony would not miss this live, by another way.  He was still incapable of escaping from the camp at last.  He would die out there on that fuckin' beach.

The helmet was heavy.  It made turning neck difficult and it greatly worsen the sight.  Although his briefness and heavy breath couldn't leave white mist on the glass, it made the disturbed voice from his mouth ring in his ears.  And it aggravated the strain of mental effort obviously.

As one of the biggest military company in the world, the Stark Industries provided millions of weapons for the UDF.  And they had participated in the design of this jacket technology.  How could a father not know his child?

Tony made himself calm down and took a deep breath.  He looked down at the dashboard on his right arm.  Fortunately, he had considered this operating system 'Dummy' when he was developing Jericho.  He had been familiar with its operation after the training several hours ago.  He knew how to walk and do some basic movements.

But he still couldn't live in the coming fight.  Thought about this, his stomach sank.

"One minute and 30 seconds!" said Colonel Rhodes.  His voice came out from the built-in microphone of everyone's helmet.  "Ready for a victory, soldiers!" Shouted he, in a clear and passionate voice.  And it worked.  Everyone in the cabin seemed excited except Tony.

These dramatic words couldn't help this half-way 'recruit' even a little.

"Look at this silent little guy.  What's in your suit then?" said a hip-hop black young man, called Sam, maybe.  He seemed to by very relaxed and cheerful and didn't care about what would happen later.

"I see a dead guy in it." said the archer, Clint.  Tony knew this guy's honey bow.  He had designed those explosive arrows personally.  This kind of arrow could balance power with sensibility.  The archer looked at Tony and smiled with no spite.

Tony didn't have the bandwidth to take on anything else.  He didn't want to make out who were actually mocking.  He had to take every chance to remember all the use of weapons and the number of bullets.  If he could use them reasonably, he might live longer luckly.  Tony sighed and decided to move on.

"One minute, you all......" announced Colonel Rhodes loudly.  Every lower decks below them opened with the short pause of Rhodes.  At the time, the sound of high speed air flow which because of sudden pressure change made Tony shock and lost the voice of the Colonel.

A world of waters was at Tony's feet.  He could see the bay's harbor ruins not far away from them.  There were thousands of aircrafts flying around them.  Tony didn't know how many soldiers were here.  The soldiers ahead of them were jumping one by one.  That made those aircrafts look like some huge insects spilling eggs.

"Thirty seconds to drop!"  It took a little time to find his ears.  Tony could hear Rhodes again.  The guy beside him had already put his finger on the launch-control button.  He just couldn't wait.  The colonel's voice still continued, "Remember your......"

 

No one had predicted this active assault.

Before Colonel Rhodes got the last word out, the aircraft had been hit by a shell and a violent explosion had torn the cabin open.  Two unfortunate guys were punctured by metal fragments directly.  One of them was motionless. His mask was spattered with blood.  Others could not see what condition of him very well, but he was estimated to have been dead.  The other one was struggling and trying to put the piece of iron out of his chest.  He was vomiting blood through the wide-open mouth.  Scarlet slimy blood was leaking from the crevices of his helmet, dropping on his colpus.

Tony stared at all these with astonishment.  He was a businessman selling weapons, but he never saw people be wounded by heavy weapons so close.  He always worked in the lab or talking and smiling with those rich powerful men at the feast or party.  He drunk and fucked with beautiful girls.  This scene made Tony freeze completely.  He was standing across two aisles from those two guys.  The smell of blood seemed to waft into Tony's rebreather and made him retching.  He couldn't move. His limbs were heavy as lead.

"Jump!  Right now!"  Colonel Rhodes was the first man who had snapped out of shock.  He picked himself up and beat the soldiers close to him like crazy.  "Jump!  If you don't want to die here!"

The most responsive guys were Clint and Sam.  Others pushed the launch controller button after them in a few seconds, like beens ejected from the peashooters.

"Stark!" shouted Colonel Rhodes and kicked Tony hard, "What are you waiting for?" spat Rhodes, "Fuck!"  He beat the red button on Tony's controller.

"Nooooo!!"  Tony waved his arms and legs hastily from a sudden reacted to try to stop this.

However, he had been thrown out by the thruster already.

 

Because of this unexpected strike, the UDF army temporarily fell into chaos.  It was typically not a good sign.  Many aircrafts were destroyed when they were flying.  They fell with smoke as fireballs flew across the sky.

Drastic actions made Tony twirl around and around with the safety strap like a top.  A genuine sense of weightlessness made him feel sick.  His stomach churned.  Nothing could be worse.  He couldn't help but dive into the shallow headlong inevitably before he had regained his balance.  Incessant explosions, shouts and gunshots encompassed Tony.  All these mingled to from a background which made his mind go blank around his ears.

It was inherent.  Tony felt panic from being so close to a battle.  But he preferred to survive.  Nevertheless, with a great survival instinct at this point, he ignored the dizzy sickness and got up off the sand.  He stumbled to his feet and tried to find his teammates.  A missile from somewhere crashed into the ground not far behind him.  Flying sand spattered all over his face.  Tony wiped his hand across his mask to make his narrow view clearer.  The sand also fell into his suits.  It was very uncomfortable.  But it was nothing compared to this chaotic shallow.

"Get off!!"  An impact pushed Tony away suddenly when he was trying to shake off the sand from his back.  Tony tripped up over his own feet and could't stop this momentum.  He rolled into a sand pit straightly.  A burning aircraft scraped Tony's mask and tumbled over him at the same time.

"Oh my fuckin' god!" said Tony.  He widened his eyes and blinked.  He just wanted to confirm that he was still alive completely.  He patted himself.  Nothing had been lost.  It seemed to be working normally besides the pains all over his body.  He got up on all fours.  He didn't know who saved him.  It sounded familiar.  Maybe that was one of the avengers.  Thanked that guy, he...

Then he saw a piece of Hulk — he recognized the muscle oil — lying at the place he just stood.

Tony really couldn't help himself this time.  He shook the helmet off.  His stomach churned with nausea.  He spat up and felt distress, tears were squeezed out of his canthi.

He killed a man, a teammate who had saved his life and he could do nothing about it.

 

A loud sound from that destroyed aircraft pulled Tony out of his serious self-hate.

Steve Rogers, AKA, Captain America, kicked the distorted hatch door open, carrying his star shield, dragging his epee in the hand and came out.  He didn't wear a helmet.  Maybe it was lost in the accident a few minutes ago.

The sun, belonged to Jun. 9th, had risen up over the horizon just now.  Sunshine stretched Tony's shadow but shone on Steve's face head-on.  Steve's blond hair was loose and paralyzed, but it did not affect the image in Tony's eyes.  He was shining like an angel.

Steve wrinkled his brows when he came out.  He looked around warily. It was not safe here.  He must leave now — a sixth sense.

Validating his idea, a mimic wriggling its tentacles came out of the aircraft's shadow with a rustling sound.

It was the first time that Tony saw a space invader by his own.  They were like metal Xenomorph with many long tentacles.  They moved fast and flexible.

Steve noticed Tony.  He shouted something, but Tony didn't catch that.

That mimic seemed to be attracted by Steve.  It gave up Tony and rushed towards Steve.  Steve fell back at the same time to creat some distance between he and that mimic.  The micro missile launcher on his back mounted on his shoulders quickly and bombarded that alien down of the roof before it had come closer.  The counterforce did not slowed down Steve.  He jumped on the roof with jets's momentum on his feet, wielded his huge sword and slammed it on the mimic's head.  It was trying to climb on the roof again.

 

When another mimic jumped out from the other side of shambles, Tony tried to remind that blond-hair warrior loudly.  But Steve hadn't listened to him. He was immersing in his fight.

"Maybe he doesn't need me." said Tony to himself.  He stood up again.

How fast you had adapted this place!  How numb you had become!  Tony couldn't believe this subtle change himself.

Tony saw the team avengers gathering to a trench nearby from the corner of his eye.  His helmet was thrown away because it was too troublesome.  Maybe that was the reason that Tony didn't get the assemble notification.  Anyway, Tony looked back again.  He saw Steve Rogers still standing on that aircraft's roof fighting with more and more mimics.  Tony ran to the trench in heavy steps at last.

Rogers would be fine.  He was the battlefield angel.  He would never break down.

Tony heard a great noise from the direction that Steve was fighting — he had taken no more than a few steps — it was like some big things falling down.  Tony couldn't help himself to stop and look back.  He saw the roof that Steve was standing just had a hole there.  Both Steve and the mimics fell into the aircraft, and more mimics were surging after.  They all tried to climb in that hole. 

Tony had one second hesitation whether or not to go back for help.  And then, the whole aircraft exploded.  The scope of explosive power enlarged to Tony instantaneously.  He was battered down by the oncoming fire and airflow, fell down on his back.

Damn it, Jericho AP-type bomb, Tony knew this response to the phenomenon.

Then he fainted.

 

The next time, Tony woke up, everything was white.  He felt dizzy and ears ringing seriously.  It was a temporary sequela of sharp blasts of energy at close range.  Tony knew that.

His first response was to look towards the place that Steve was fighting — it was blown to flat in 20-meter radius around that aircraft.  The surface of the sand was melted because of the instantaneous high temperature, and it had congealed into bright glass.  No matter how Tony moved his head, the light of the morning sun always could reflect off some plane into his eyes.

Tony shadowed his face.  He couldn't see anything clearly, although there was nothing left.

Steve Rogers was dead, with a group of mimics.

No doubt about that.

"What are you doing, Stark!" called someone far away.  Tony was at a loss.  His brain had not recovered from that impact.  But he found that he was pulled by somebody.

It was Natasha, the red-hair woman from Russia.

She pushed Tony into the trench and threw herself down next to Tony quickly to fire machine-gun.

"......  Fuck!  How did they know we would come?"  When Tony regained his full hearing and consciousness gradually, he heard Clint complaining.  "This should be a surprise attack, an 'encirclement and suppression' campaign!  Not some fuckin' thing like this!  We've been unilateral slaughtered by them!" 

"I can't contact with superiors!  The radio was disturbed!" shouted Thor — the hammer-man — he never gave any pause to his attacks.   _He had a peculiar taste like Rogers._ Tony felt like his brain had been out of control.

Sam's machine-gun was silenced.  "My gun is empty!"  He pulled his attention back from the front and shouted to Thor fretfully.

"We have no bullet any more!"  Clint looked down at the spare magazine boxes.  "Get started guys.  We will meet them face to face."  By the time, his ammunition was exhausted.  He threw the useless gun away and stood up, took off the bow from his backs and held it tight in hand.  "Fuck you aliens!"

"Get up, Playboy!"  Natasha had already left the scalding gun.  She took out two distinct processing steel knives from her waist.

Tony moved his head back and forth to make himself more awake.  He tried to get up, but his brain had not rebuild balance.  He was not sure about the orientation and the strength he needed.  He just took another bite of sand and was too weak to spit it out.

"Odin's Hammer!"  Thor waved his huge hammer and rushed to the first mimic running towards them.

 

The real situation was worse than what people imagine.

It was Tony who noticed the middle of this trench was sinking.

Compared with the external siege, the fact that they were fighting on a mimic's head was more terrible.

When this enormous alien had completely stood up, Tony knew that they had no chance to win.

That was a blue alien, four times bigger than any other mimics.  It had tougher cuticle and brawny tentacles.  Humanity was like paper dolls under its feet.  By only waving his forelegs, it had killed almost all soldiers in this trench.  There was only Tony who was still breathing.  Maybe thought that Tony was a corpse, the enormous mimic had not noticed him.

But this feeling that he would be seen at anytime was more uncomfortable.

Tony turned his head and noticed that Natasha's chest was slight rise and fall.  She had not died, but she was dying.  Tony tried to roll over and crept towards Natasha as inconspicuous as possible.

When the rough roar roared over his head, Tony knew that he could not dodge it.  He looked up and looked that enormous mimic straight in the eye.  No, Tony even couldn't find where the vision reaction system of mimic's was.

Opened the safety lock, chose the third option of weapon system, started automatic aiming and shot.

Tony did not need to look down at the operating panel.  He could set the missile on from his back.  Thanked to his familiarity with this operating system.

Tony raised his right hand and grabbed the right wrist with his left hand to make it shake less, so that the gunsight could lock the target while that enormous mimic was roaring at Tony and Natasha.

The missile exploded inside.  That blue monster was like some opened fruit, flesh and metal bone poured down and wetted Tony.

That caustic body fluid found its way up between crevices and seeped through the suit.  When it touched the skin, Tony screeched.  He saw his white bone was exposed through his wound.  It hadn't corroded all of his body completely.

That was the most disgusting screen that Tony had never seen in his all life.

 

 _I'm dead._ Tony thought.   _I don't know if the live had shot me or not.  Oh yes, they did not have the signal.  That was good._

 

-TBC-


	3. Chapter 3

**\- 03 -**

“... Get yourselves in line!...”

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

“... Run faster! Didn't you have breakfast?...”

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

“... Please hand in all of your electronic equipment....”

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

“... Sergeant! Your...”

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!... Getting closer.

“... Check all your outfits...”

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!... Going far away again.

 

"Soldier!  What time you do going to get up?"  The voice was not loud but was irresistibly august.  It suddenly appeared above Tony's head.

"Heeee—!!" gasped Tony.  He opened his eyes widely and was panic.  He might kick something.

"What the fuck!" that man kicked back and was foul-mouthed, then he retreated aside.

Panic seized Tony.  He tried to sit up but was failed.

_No no no no no no no!!!_

The sunshine glared.  Tony covered eyes with his hand spontaneously, and he saw what he was wearing - the Amani suit he had worn for the benefit auction party a day ago, not three days ago.  It was a suit of light gray grounding with silver stripe.  It was tailor-made, and it was chosen by Pepper.

Pepper was a very understanding kinda assistant and she had a great sense of style.  She could get a drunk unconscious Tony back from everywhere.  However, this spell able lady couldn't find him this time.

There were bands of soldiers not far away.  Tony saw the national flag on their chests - they came from the United States.  Maybe they had just arrived in the same plane just now. 

No trench, no explosion, no dead bodies with holes on their tummies or chests, no stumps or broken suits lying on the sand, no damn mimics - Tony peered over tents.  He could see a part of a huge crude garage on the other side of this base.  A large recruitment poster was painted on the metal side wall - the blonde Captain America wearing a suit was holding a greatsword and a shield.  There were large words 'I WANT YOU' painted on his waist.  There must have smaller words 'FOR THE UNION ARMY' below, but they were blocked by the ceilings of tents -  _maybe it was a dream._   Tony shook his head and tried to see everything more clearly.  It was like that he had been here once.

A prophetic dream?

"Looks like you need someone to tell you how to treat an officer." that black officer who had been kicked by Tony couldn't bear it.  He came up and said, "This is not a recruit should be dressed in." said he word by word poking Tony's shoulder with his finger.

"...... should be dressed in." said Tony in a low voice at about the same time.  He finally focussed on the other man, "Colonel Rhodes?" asked Tony hesitantly after he had seen the black officer's epaulet.

"......" Rhodes was confused by Tony's reaction,  "I don't care who you are, but since you know me, you should know that you have to learn that damn discipline, Sergeant."  He gave a quiet cough to get back his dignity.  "We only have recruits..."

"...... here, nothing else."  Tony helped him finishing the rest of the words.

Rhodes blinked a few times, he suddenly lost his following words.  Fortunately, there was not much time for him to think deeply.  There was a group of soldiers coming forward from the deep camp.  "Colonel Rhodes, leave this man to me. You can go now."  A man in black with four well-armed guards interrupted Rhodes.

Tony looked like that he had seen the savior, "Phil!" shouted he, like greeting an old friend.  Then he saw that face had been stiff fleetly and turned to smile again.  That fuckin' smile meant nothing good.  Tony stopped his step and backed away, "...... General Coulson."  He reached out prudently.

"I'm glad that you still remember me, Mr. Stark." Coulson shook his hand with open arms, just like an old friend.  He also patted Tony's shoulder.  The series of interactions dispelled Rhodes' doubts.  He looked at his general and the rookie 'sergeant'.  At last, he turned away squarely.

"Sorry, I think I don't know you." denied Tony in a low voice.  He pointed to Coulson's back, "But I know you are holding a micro stun gun, STARK X3 U-1, modified form."

Coulson didn't answer him, he elevated his eyebrows slightly - God blessed him with his forehead wrinkles — he moved his right hand forward slowly, a STARK X3 modified U-1 stun gun.

Tony narrowed his eyes proudly.  Even it had been a hasty glimpse, he didn't make a mistake.  "I know what order you've gotten." said Tony seriously, "but, listen, general, you must stop this project!"

"What project?" Coulson seemed to be more interested in Tony himself — not his words.  He raised his fist to imply the guards hold the gun and be on fully alert.

"The attack project tomorrow." Tony frowned, and he understood what Coulson bewared of soon, "Listen, I'm not a spy or someone else."  He lifted his hands trying to ease some of the tension, "Hey, I thought everyone knows that mimics do not need human spies!"

"Oh, of course." Couslon smiled.  He stretched hand to take the elbow of Tony.  It was a pally motion — Tony noticed that Rhodes was keeping a keen eye on them — Coulson placed the muzzle of stun gun in Tony's back, forced him to move to the deep of camp, "I know, you'll try to prevent yourself from going to the front.  Am I right, Mr. Stark?"

"Oh!  No!  You misunderstood!" Tony knew how much more powerful his weapon was, he had no choice but to follow Coulson's steps, "General, have you seen  _Final Destination_?About a high school boy had foreseen their death, and those accidents really happened later."

"Oh my god!   _If it is, then it's not finished, and we will die - now, not later - unless, unless we find the patterns and cheat it again._ " exclaimed Coulson like a little boy, he shrugged, "I really haven't played this run-lines game for a long time." The muzzle moved up and down with Coulson's shrugging.

"This is not a game!" Tony was both nervous and angry, but he was unarmed and helpless.  They finally approached the Team Avengers' tent step by step.

"Order from above, Anthony Stark, you are nobody besides the name same as the rich playboy.  You are a trickster and deserter.  Senator warned definitely, you would use the name to muddle through.  But do you know how we treat a deserter?" said Phil.  Tony shut up this time.  He was so desperate to verify the reality was almost the same as what he had dreamt, except the fat senator - Coulson didn't mention him.  Even he had tried to turn the situation around, the story was still progressing toward the predetermination.

"I know.  Thank you.  Please take your stun gun away a little." Tony nodded hard.

But 'Give up' would never appear in the Stark's dictionary.

Coulson didn't take Tony's attitude too seriously, "I hope you'll never repeat the mistake." said he.  Then he pulled Tony into the tent, "Welcome to the Team Avengers."

"Hey, Clint!" Tony waved his hand to the man who looked at him first.

"And you, Natasha!" he pointed to the red-hair woman in black vest before everyone had reacted.  "Thor!  Sam!" he called the other three men in one breath, "Hulk!" Tony was like a boy who had recited a Shakespearean sonnet and hoped for adult's praise, he looked at his five future teammates, with bulging eyes.  Though it would be a short time for them to get on with each other.

Silence didn't last long.  Sam looked from Thor to Clint, "Seriously, guys, our interview has been in print so soon?"

"In print?" Tony was stunned.

"Wow, we are an all-star team now, are we?  I don't know when they will send we the copies." Clint whistled.

"For  _TIME_!  For Avengers!" shouted Hulk and Thor, upped with their fists.

"You boys." Natasha turned up the corner of her mouth, smiled. She tried to show indifference, but when she watched her teammates laughed and hugged each other, her face had become soft.

Anyway, no one cared more about Tony.

"Hey!  Hey!" shouted Tony loudly, trying to bring the avengers' attention back to himself.  At next second, he felt a strong hemp inductance with incoming pain followed.  All his muscles were tight and twitching.  He could not control himself.  Then he went into convulsion and fell to the ground.

That asshole Coulson!  He actually used that stun gun!

"Paralysis will pass in a few minutes." Coulson squatted down, taped a length of sellotape to Tony's mouth, "Learn." He patted Tony's face and then called guards to lift Tony up, threw Tony on the only empty camp bed.

Tony watched himself be locked.

Seriously, handcuffs?!

But he could not fight back even by tongue.  His mouth was still numb.  He maybe had already slobbered shameful without that sellotape sealing his mouth.

 

"Listen, we are going to land on the coast of Manfredonia." Colonel Rhodes was in machinery suit, beat the fixators which could keep soldiers sheltered in rhythm as he spoke.  "Proofread your system time now!  Two minutes to drop!" He did a double take on seeing Tony.

Nobody could get control of their eyes - there was a recruit with a length of sellotape sealing his mouth.

That poor guy had been whining since the colonel began to talk.  He swung in the suit violently and tried to tear off the thing sticking to his mouth, but he was locked by a safety device.

"One minute and 30 seconds!" said Colonel Rhodes, he looked down at the system interface on his right arm, "Ready for a victory, soldiers!" shouted he, and it worked.

"Uuu uuu uuu uuu!" Tony struggled harder.

"Look at this silent little guy.  What's in your suit then?" Sam scoffed.  He was hitched opposite Tony, "Oh, baby, what are you talking?  I can't understand." He put his hand by his ear pretending he was listening.

"Stop it, Falcon!" Natasha interrupted solemnly.  Her straight face made Clint swallow his follow-up joke successfully.  The red-haired female soldier was hitched left to Tony, she was the closest to him.

"Maybe he was worried about his lock." said Clint awkwardly.  He didn't want to make her angry.  "Don't worry, mustache guy, the safety device will liberate your hands when you jump."

"Thirty seconds to drop!" Rhodes continued telling time.

Natasha stopped Clint by eyes, and then tore Tony's sellotape down briskly.

Fine hair was uprooted and it was biting.  But Tony couldn't think more about it.  He shouted, "Missile! Miss-"

Their aircraft exploded.

 

Tony was the first jumped down.  He paid great attention to keep balance as well as possible.  Though weightlessness was unpleasant, he felt lucky that he did not dive into the shallow headlong.

As what Clint said, the safety device turned green when he fell and freed his hands.

  
_Wait!  Wait!_   Tony knew these too well, he had dreamt about all of these, exactly the same.  Tony was a little confused.  Those crashed aircrafts, injured and dead people, soldiers were keeping going on, missiles roared through the sky......  These were so real, that they were not like the true reality.

Was this another dream, or he just could not escape from death?

Tony trembled.  It was not panic or physical discomfort.  It was a kind of powerlessness came from his stomach and poured out from throat.  What could he do?  Even he had known what would happen.  Did it help?  He could just walk with this suit.  He could not fight as those well trained soldiers.   _You can do nothing, you just watch, and you knew what would happen._ This kind of powerlessness froze Tony and made his mind blank.

"Get off!!" as a missile from somewhere crashed into the ground in front oh him.  A voice came from his back and an impact pushed Tony away suddenly at the same time.

Hulk was dead - as same as the dream.

Tony felt cold.  It was his fault.  It was his fault!  It was him!  He knew it was going to happen, and he still had killed Hulk.

The loud sound was like an alarm bell when Steve Rogers kicked the distorted hatch door open and it remind Tony one thing - he could save this Mars guy.

Yes, he needed to save Steve.  It was only Captain America who could save everyone, just liked the battle of Verdun.

 

-TBC-


	4. Chapter 4

**\- 04 -**

Steve did not anticipate this raid also.  He was ordered from General Nick Fury.  The general suggested that it would be a human counterattack completely, not a premeditated ambushment, and they were part of the ambushed side unfortunately.

The missile was hit in the port of their aircraft.  The fragments of wings burst into the engine leading to serial explosions.

"Forced landing!  Forced landing!" Steve gripped the nearest safe shelf, opened the stationary installations, making himself firmly stick on the wall, "James(James Montgomery Falsworth: One of the Howling Commandos)!  Open the cabin door!" He looked to the cockpit, shouted.

"I can't!" The plane had lost its balance.  This Franch pilot turned the auto mode to manual operation so that they would not crash on the beach directly, "The system had something wrong!  You have to open it by hands!"

"OK!  I'll do that." Steve put himself down from the wall, opened the rivet fixators under his feet at the same time, making sure that he would walk to the cabin door switch step by step, not roll around because of the rocking aircraft.

"You have 30 seconds, Cap!" shouted James, "We have only one engine left!"

"O-K-" Steve took a deep breath, took back the rivet fixators, lowered his body and found the right direction.  He started the crural ejectors, made use of the instantaneous acceleration and the aircraft inclined angle, rushed to the cabin door.

 

After James Falsworth had catapulted out, Steve reconfirmed that everyone had already landed safely.  The operational dashboard was flickering and audible alarms sounding rapidly.  He had missed the best time to jump already.  If he jumped now, he might have been dead before the protection mechanism worked.

Steve had been kind of torn between jumping to take a chance and staying on the aircraft to try to force it to land for one second.  If he chose the first selection, he might break one leg or one arm with good luck.

The left engine did not play the role that it should have played.  Steve turned and rushed into the cockpit.  He fastened the seat belt to set himself on the seat.  Losing any part of body functions meant he would be a meat waiting for capture or a useless teammate holding others' back on the battle field, and he would not let this happen.

Holding the control column tight, what Steve could do at this time was landing on that beach forward without crashing against another aircraft and hoping the sand had ample cushioning.

He looked at his right-arm operation interface of his suit.  There was an unattractive and small photo at the corner of that blue electronic signs.  You couldn't make out who they were without enlarging it.

Steve bit the bullet, "I can't die here!"

 

The aircraft smashed its nose into the beach.  It made Steve lose seconds of consciousness.  Sand fell from the broken window down to a pile on the operating floor and then slipped on the ground.

Steve had dull pain everywhere, but it was normal with a safety belt tying him.  He roused himself with an effort, sniffed and shook his head vigorously.  He made sure that the chest pain was due to stretching muscle not broken ribs.  He disabled the suit fixed settings, climbed up to the arsenal which had been overhead.  Steve took his adamantium greatsword from the wall and held it in his hand.  The vibranium shield was fixed on his back.  It was convenient to take.

Steve threw the sweaty helmet away.  Its' mask was broken.  His short hair was messy.  He put out his free hand to fix it.

The nearest exit was blocked by sand.  Steve had to try the twisted one.  The lock must be broken inside.  Steve could not turn the valve.  He stepped back and aimed the gun at the lock.

 

Steve kicked the door aside and walked out with his huge and heavy weapon in tow.

The light of a rising sun made his eyes which had been used to dark uncomfortable.  But he still noticed the brown-haired man standing under the outstanding sandpile.   _Tony Stark?_   Steve was amazed.  This man should not appear at this place, this moment.

Before he saw that man clearly, crisis awareness had been like a needle stabbed him in the back of his neck - the mimics!

Then he heard the scratch of aliens clambering over the aircraft metal case.  "Go!" shouted Steve at that frozen guy.  He must be stunned by those aliens.  God damn!  The shadow was cast from his above. Steve knew it was a mimic that came from the other side of the aircraft.

Tony could not be hurt, even though that was a man who looked like him.

"This is Steve Rogers calling the howling commandos.  Does anyone copy?" He leant back his head and shouted to the interphone wearing on his right shoulder.  Nobody answered but the monotonous rustle rustled - the signal was cut off.  This made him frown.  He only had his own now.

Steve turned around and stepped backward.  He set up the missile launcher and launched.  These actions were like flowing water and were finished in the blink of an eye.  That monster was shot down from the cabin roof directly.  It had tried to attack 'Tony'.  But the experience told Steve that this alien might not have died.

He started the hopping instruments under his feet.  He was going to catch up with it and beat it in the end.

"No!  Stop!" Steve was grabbed.

It was the real Tony Stark.  His slightly curled brown hair was stuck on his forehead by sweat or seawater.  Sand and ash left dirty traces on his face.  His round eyes widened and filled with anxiety and panic, "Stop." he repeated.

The mimic losing its half tentacles climbed onto the aircraft again.  It writhed in a fearsome strange snarl.  It was hurt and felt a pain.

"Stand behind me!" Steve had missed the best chance to fight back because of Tony.  He pulled Tony to his back first and then wielded his huge sword with the help of the power of twisting his waist to that alien's weaponization tentacle.  Forgetting the fishy body fluid spattering him, Steve pursued enemy troops in retreat, ran his sword through the heart of that mimic.

"What's wrong with you!" said Steve panting and proceeded to push Tony into the wall.  After protecting them from danger briefly, the terror of this attack was still beating tumultuously in their blood.

"You will die here!" shouted Tony angrily thinking of his good intention had been repaid by rough result. "There will be more......" Just as he spoke, another mimic jumped out from the back of ruin, "Your back!" Tony almost bit his tongue.  He held the gun and opened fire on the enemy behind Steve subconsciously.

As he had gotten used to the operation of his suit, it was not so difficult to handle.  Tony bit the bullet and kept on fire.  This was his first shoot.  He was caught off guard, and was pushed back by the recoil force.  If he was not in a suit and backing onto the cabin wall, he might have toppled over or dislocated his shoulder already.

But the mimic was much faster than Tony's reagency.  It jumped out of his attack range quickly, moved in a zigzagged way and pounced toward them.

Unfortunately, there was Steve Rogers waiting, too.  That experienced soldier lowered his barycenter, let his sword drew a perfect arc on sand and raised in rondure, splitted that mimic in two neatly.

 

"You can't stay here!" shouted Steve.  He had just finished an alien and no reinforcements were coming for the unoccupied seat.

After a brief direction by Steve before, Tony had learnt how to deal with the recoil force of a machine gun.  He was holding two weapons covering Steve's blind angles.  A dry smile came on his face.  Tony grinned.  "I think nobody can escape from here now."

Mimics had gathered around slowly.  Tony killed one who had gotten too close ten seconds after that.  He backed onto the cabin wall, recovered his breath.  He didn't expect this.  It had been different from his dream since he ran to Steve, and he was trapped with Steve together now.

"Come here." Steve patted the metal wall over Tony's head.  The resounding slaps caught Tony's attention.  When the big-eye brown-hair guy look up at Steve himself, he had some inconspicuous forehead wrinkles above his eyebrows.  It made him much more like Howard.  Steve leant over, knees on the cabin roof, reached out his arm and spread his palm.  Tony sniffed and then smiled with his fingers wrapping around Steve's wrist.

Steve pulled Tony to the roof by using the strength of his mechanical suit.

Tony was just coming out of a terrible fight. His knees were too weak to go on, he threw himself at his feet beside Steve.  "I really didn't expect this." said he, panting still.  His heart was beating so fast that he nearly thought he would die soon.

"Nothing can be expected beforehead on the battle field." said Steve vaguely, but he was trying to comfort Tony turely.

"No!" Tony contradicted firmly.  He looked around - he had a good view now - he saw the trench which the avengers were defending in.  His teammates were fighting with some scattered mimics.  "Look.  I wouldn't believe me if I were you, either.  But trust me, I dreamt about all of these yesterday.  The missiles, the assault, the crashing, these many-legged monsters, death...... All this!"

"Maybe you were too nervous.  Anyone could be like this before this joint operation." Steve reached his hand wanting to pull Tony up off the roof, but Tony refused.  He was just fighting with high adrenaline, now he felt dizziness, weak body, weakness and really wanted to vomit.  He even couldn't touch the operation panel because of the shivering fingers.

"No, things are not so." Tony wanted to push Steve's hand away, stand up all by himself, but he failed.  His arms and legs were not like he himself's.  "I saw you die, here!"

"Tony......" Steve knelt down, looked straight into Tony's distracted dark brown eyes.

"Do you know me?" Tony interrupted hesitantly.

Steve seemed confounded a moment.  "Everyone knows Tony Stark." he said, swallowed hard and he could feel the Adam's apples pogo in his throat.

"I did't think anyone here had known me, and called me by my name." Tony blinked.

Steve's breath grabbed in his throat.  He didn't know how to answer.

"Tell me if you had killed a huge blue mimic or not?" There was not much time left for them. The encirclement of enemies were shrinking slowly.  It was strange that they did not launch attack at first.  Steve didn't know why, but he decided not to waste time any more.

"Me?  I haven't......" Tony looked at Steve wide-eyed, "In my dream?  Oh bloody yes!  Yes!  Yes!  Its blood was blue.  I was spattered all over, it was like vitriol, and it was fuckin' hurt!"

"Oh my God......" Steve suddenly flung himself upon Tony before he finished his words.  A tentacle swept like a whirlwind and broached by Steve's head.  "That was not a dream!"  he shouted.  The missile launched from his back shot that mimic which had tried to attack Tony again and pounded it into dust.  But that was Steve's last missile.  "Tell me what will happen next!" He hold the shield in left hand and the sword in right to keep Tony in his conservation area, be like a loyal knight.

"I don't know!  I didn't see!" Tony shouted himself hoarse.  He didn't understand what Steve really mean.  "You died!  Rogers!  You are dead!"

A tentacle climbed up without a sound and nobody had realized, until Tony had been coiled around his ankle and dragged down from the cabin roof.

"Tony!" Steve was pestered by two mimics at that time.  He realized that these alien creatures were trying to get him away from Tony.  He had already run out of bullets and could not win this fight so soon from a cave with two tacit enemies.

Losing Tony's backup, another three mimics climbed on the cabin roof behind Steve and he couldn't stop that with both hands full.  And now he was surrounded by five monsters.  The roof was fried by the fire came from the engines for so long that it couldn't load all this heavy anymore.  It collapsed with a series of crunchy sound.

Steve protected his neck, fell onto a mimic's dead body.

"Hey, Captain, nice to meet you, again." Tony's joking voice came from the other side of corner not far away.  Steve looked up and saw that brown-haired little man raising a gun in the hand complacently.  His other should had a bleeding hole, the corresponding arm was powerlessly off the body.  His eyes sparkled, watching Steve intently.  "Unfortunately, I have no bullet left."

The mimics slipped into the cabin slowly, they had been waiting upside before.  They seemed in no hurry to kill them.

"I'm sorry, I think I can't move." Tony pushed Steve's helping hand away.  He pointed at his leg, "I got my leg broke when I was dragged down.  That monster didn't know how to treat a gentleman tenderly."

Steve saw more and more mimics crowding around through the gaps of this broke cabin.  Their target was clear, and the target himself hadn't known yet.

"Listen to me, Stark." Steve reached his left hand to hold Tony's shoulder - the good one.  His other hand pressed on the button in front of his chest - it was the activate key of a portable Jericho bomb.  "When you wake up next time, come and find me."

He put his arms around Tony and held him before his suit had exploded.

 

-TBC-


	5. Chapter 5

 

"Nooooo!"  Tony screamed cried and roared himself hoarse, jumped up from the luggage.  "What the fuck!" Dumbfounded and surprised, he saw the neat and orderly tents around, soldiers were lined up afar and the huge painting of Captain America on the warehouse wall - Jesus!  The sensory impression of death gave him the shivers.  He hugged himself tightly getting all in a panic.  Tony gripped his arms and gasped for breath.  It seemed that Steve was still holding him.  The touch, the temperature and the breath in his ear, these were too real that nothing like a nightmare.

What's fucking wrong with myself?

"Soldier!  What time are......"

"Nice meeting you here, Colonel Rhodes." Tony quickly calmed himself down and broke the continuity of this black officer's speech.  He exhaled a breath, straightened up and held his chin high to make himself enough confident, smoothed his slightly-tousled hair with the palm of his hand - thanks to the superior fixature Pepper chose for him had not lost its efficacy completely - and smoothed out his suit hem rapidly, took out a handkerchief from the pocket and wiped his hands at last to show his respect to the others.  Tony restored himself to the Stark status in one second.  He squarely took Rhodes' hand which was not reaching up and said, "Sorry, I was a little drunk last night.  Maybe you don't know me, but I dare say you've heard about the Stark Industries and I am the CEO, Tony Stark, nice to meet you."  He felt the strong response on his hand and knew he had gained the initiative in this conversation.  With the worry of the bald-headed general would appear and expose him anytime, Tony spoke faster unconsciously, "This battle is very vital, and I was told the Captain America's machinery suit had some problems, so I came here myself to make sure there'll be nothing wrong.  Provide high quality after-sales services satisfy customers' requirement anytime and anywhere is our aim.  You'll go to the front tomorrow. I don't like surprises."

Colonel Rhodes frowned.

Tony asked straightforward, "Can you tell me where I can find Mr. Rogers?" left no chance for Rodges to ask questions.  He saw Coulson and his guards were coming from far away, he had no time to cover himself.  He gripped his hands tightly.  They were in a cold sweat.

"Captain should be in the training hall as usual, the third barrack in row seven." Rhodes pointed to those neat rows of tents, "But......"

"I think General Coulson needs to talk to you.  All right, I won't hold you up then.  Clock is running.  Those machinery guys need a major overhaul." Tony patted the black officer's forearm and ran away.

"Stop him!" Coulson's shout came from the back of him far away.

Tony had lots of experience of getting rid of paparazzi.  These gun guys meant nothing.  Their tracing capability was not even good as those prying journalists who wanted to dig scandals from him.

 

The training hall was much bigger than the other tents.  It seemed to have been here for a long time, not a temporary structure.  But no one knew what it used for in the old days.

Tony looked into the shiny iron gate to look after his suits and hairstyle again.  This made him more decent rather than sorehead.  He would meet the angel of Verdun in a few minutes.  He didn't even sure that man knew who he was.

  
_"Everyone knows Tony Stark."_ Rogers told him that on the rooftop of the cabin before.

Rogers also hugged him at last.  What was that for?  A goodbye?  Or sorry for their commit suicide?

Jesus!  Was it a dream or not?

Tony was a little uncertain suddenly.  Maybe he was still in that nightmare.  Maybe he really drank too much at this time - Tony pinched his thigh hard.  It was true painful and he didn't awake with a start from his king-size bed in Malibu or somewhere else.  Tony shut his eyes hard until the trial of strength between his upper eyelid and lower eyelid had made him see stars.  He took a deep breath and then opened his eyes, he saw no beautiful busty girls, no champagne, or good-figure men.  Tony slowly released that 30 seconds holding breath at his dim inverted reflection in the iron door.

This was reality.

Tony pushed the door open.  The inertia force made the iron door bang up against the other side of slide way.

Now, everyone in the training hall was staring at Tony because of the big noise.

  
_This is really awesome,_  thought Tony.  Maybe he could tick the last option - various bare-shirted or I-shaped-vested muscle men were all over the hall. There were also many women with hot figure.

"Have you seen Rogers?" Tony went in and asked the man lying on the bench press.

"What?" The robust man slowly sat up on the bench press with a threatening humph for long, rammed his red homburg on his head.  Every heavy breathing was blowing with his handlebar on his upper lip.

"You have a nice hat." said Tony, patted the red homburg muscle guy's sweaty arm - the tight rippling musculus biceps brachia was almost twice Tony's.

"Dum." The man's face lost some of its sharpness, and his expression became gentle, probably because of Tony's praise.

"What?" Tony stretched out his neck slightly to look at him.

"Timothy Dugan." The muscle guy pointed to his chest and then stood up.  "You can call me DumDum."

"Hello Dum.  I'm Tony, Tony Stark." Tony tried to stand on tiptoe, but his line of sight was still level with Timothy's massive pecs, "Excuse me, is Mr. Rogers here?"

"Cap is inside." Timothy showed no curiousness or excitement to Tony's name or face.  He just looked at Tony friendly and pointed to the sandbag area not far away.

Timothy also said he could lead Tony the way, but Tony rejected the invitation.

Tony needed to go through almost the whole training hall.  Those soldiers who came from all over the world were all standing or sitting by the physical training equipments, stopping what they had been doing and looking at Tony in silence - He was so like a square peg in a round hole.

Tony looked back without retreat. His eyes ran down these guys' faces one by one - No Rogers.

"Hey, suit man, Captain is there." An Asian soldier kindly motioned toward the back of the boxing ring.

 

Getting round the boxing ring and hanging sandbags, Tony stopped there, found himself staring at the white I-shaped-vested man who was doing push-ups with only three left-handed fingers.  He couldn't even take his eyes off him.

The sweat on Steve's forehead stood out in drops slowly, streamed down his pale golden eyebrows, finally hanged over his long thick eyelashes, and then fell to the ground with only an eye blink.  The dim light illuminated Steve's curvaceous body which was covering with sweat.  His muscles were compact and muscular, the smooth curve of the muscles was changing into different radians with his every action.  When he lifted his torso from the bottom up, he had raised his head first, and tilted his square jaw up with this variation.  He pressed his lips tightly, looked so fortitudinous and serious.  Droplets worked their way through the contours of his face, passed by his prominent Adam's apple, around each sculpted muscle, down the crevice of his plump chest, and then disappeared into the neckline of his vest.  Then he raised the chest up and the shoulders in the opposite, made the collarbone and pits at shoulder blades clearerer.  His pecs and six-packs had been tensed, been like a magic wizard grasping Tony's sight line to Steve's tight waist and firm butt......

Steve noticed the man who was standing still there first, "Stark?" He saw who it is he turned into a frown.  He dusted dirt from his hands and stood up, "Why are you here?" asked he harshly.

Tony blinked at him, took back the bare gaze and tried not to be too impolite.  Thank goodness, Steve didn't notice this.  "You called me to find you." said Tony.  He found his throat so dry that his voice had been more like a whisper.  The indoor temperature of this training hall seemed too high for him.

"I've never seen you before." Said Steve word by word.  "You shouldn't be in front.  Go back home now!"

The argument between them caused others' concern.  The soldiers had gotten around gradually.

"You definitely know me." Said Tony affirmatively.

"Everyone knows Tony Stark." Said Steve in a hard face folding his arms.

"I've heard of him, he's the guy slept with every last year's Maxim cover models!" Said someone excitedly.  "I saw it in the newspaper!"

"Look at his suit......"

"I knew he was someone......"

"Captain, thank you for helping me to catch this deserter." Tony's heart sank.  Coulson had already found him and Steve ignored him.

Parted the crowd, the general and his guards came through.  Two reticent guards caught Tony's arms by his side immediately.

"He's not a deserter.  Let him go." Said Steve.  His eyebrows knitted in a deeper frown.  "Phil, I thought you knew Mr. Stark." Blamed he, looking at the general in the back with a sense of justice.

"I got an order, he is a trickster and deserter, he must be part in the tomorrow fight." Coulson looked into Steve's blue eyes perplexedly.  "Obedience is the first duty of a soldier, Cap."

Steve said nothing. He  looked at Coulson for a while, went up and pulled Tony back out from the guards.  "Did you get an order about his director?"

 

Coulson went away.

And Steve Rogers had become 'deserter' Tony Stark's director now.

"I got shock by his stun gun yesterday." Tony was still a little sensitive about it.  "Not yesterday, it's today, no, not today also...... Damn it!"

"Phil is a good man." Said Steve.  He stepped back and sat on a sandbag which was laying on the floor.  "You must have pissed him off."

"I have some reservations about it." Tony shrugged.

"I have a bad feeling." Said Steve, rubbing his temples.  "I hesitate to ask you, but do you know what made you a namesake deserter?"

"A corrupt military." Tony spread his hands.  "They want my design paper.  But they all make a mistake that the real valuable thing is my brain.  That paper is nothing.  They should send me to the test bed not the front."

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve could hardly understand why Tony filled with an indifferent look.

"Funny things are."

"Never take life for granted, it's not funny, Mr. Stark." Steve seldom became angry, but he was this time.

"Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark......" Tony used the same tone of voice Steve used, but in a tiny high way.  "Come on, you affectionately called me 'Tony' when we fought with those alien monsters!" Tony didn't know whether it was an illusion. He found Steve's face turned pink.

"We never fight together!" Steve ground his teeth, looked like he was trying to keep down his anger and really wanted to continue this conversation.

"Tomorrow." Tony became staight-backed and solemn. "I come here to see you on account of this.  You have to stop all of this.  We can't win.  Our army will be destroyed."

"We met?  Tomorrow?" Steve confirmed.

Tony nodded.  "You let me come to you when I wake up again before you detonated yourself," he added, "using my Jericho."

"Come with me." Steve stood up in a sudden.  "I want to take you to someone.  Remember, you cannot tell any others about your story, unless you really want to be sent to a lab."

 

Tony followed Steve deep into the camp to the weapon maintenance area.

"This is Bruce......" The man Steve mentioned walked into the office after three minutes, shutted the shutters and closed the door prudentially.

When Steve wanted to introduce more about that oily white-coated man, he found that Tony had already gone straight up.  "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner." He shook hands with Bruce and showed great enthusiasm.  "Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled."

"Mr. Stark, I haven't seen you in ages, but I read your......"

"English, both of you." Steve lifted his hands helplessly.  "You'll have much more time to talk about these alien things after the war." He looked at Bruce and pointed to Tony.  "Stark killed an Alpha and probably was infected by its blood, like me in Verdun."

"ɑ?" Tony asked, confused.

Bruce pressed on the screen to light it up.  "This model is completely built by Steve's description.  I just put them into 3-D vision." He looked back to Steve, then, went back to the computer.  "When the war started, we barely can acquire any information of mimics.  They have strong self-destructive behaviors, and we cannot study on them by collecting their bodies." Three types of mimics were projecting in the middle of this office.  "This is a Beta." Bruce pointed to the smallest one.  "This is the most common type in the battlefield......  Of course, what we know are just their shapes and physical property.  Betas move fast, agile and ruleless.  They're devastating and savage.  They're half inorganic and half organic creatures.  I'm sorry their biological characteristics are still mysteries.  We don't have much useful information."

"What about this?" Tony pointed to the bigger one of the other two models.  They were obviously different from Beta.  And the biggest one was like an ordinary luminous oblate ball compared to the others, though its shape was three or four times bigger than Beta. 

Steve and Bruce exchanged glances.  Their tacit silence made Tony feel agitated and grouchy.  "I've never seen this guy in any reports before.  Are you going to explain that, or not?" 

"No one can confirm its existence." Bruce took a second look at Steve and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.  "It just appeared in Steve's dream."

"We call it Omega." Said Steve after Bruce.  "We think there are some strong psychic attachments between Omega and Alpha......"

"And this is an Alpha." Bruce pointed to the last one.  It was much more like a Beta, but bigger than it, smaller than an Omega.  "Until today, just you and Steve have seen it.  We even can't tell if it was the same one or not - we still can't differentiate the individuals of them - but both of you have killed one."

"Alpha can reset time." Said Steve.  "When its body fluid corroded your flesh and blended with your blood, you inherited its ability.  In short, once you die, time will be reset to the day before." He gave Tony a meaningful look.  "Like an insurance mechanism which can avoid death effectively."

"I have another conjecture." Bruce continued.  "The real one who can reset the time is Omega.  Because of the strong psychic attachments, with the medium of this kind of telesthesia, Alpha's body fluid, Omega has confused you with Alpha.  When you die, it is the Omega resets the time to save you."

"This kind of telesthesia will make you 'see' her one day." Steve poked the blue Omega model with his finger and turned it over.  "I think she is the Queen in the mimic society, we kill her, we win the fight."

"When you see her, you must tell us the first time." Said Bruce seriously, "We can deduce where she is and make a plan."

"Why Rogers haven't found her since he has the same ability?" Tony frowned.

"I lost it." Steve looked at Tony, and his voice was matter-of-fact.  "After the battle of Verdun," He saw a light breaking in upon Tony.  Yes, it is exactly the reason Steve could save the situation on the Verdun battlefield all by his own, he had the power to load state again and again.  "I lost lots of blood.  When I came to life, I found myself lying in hospital.  I was given four blood transfusions, then I knew I could never go back."

Bruce glanced at Steve apprehensively.  Tony noticed that, but he didn't know the meaning in those eyes.  "So what should I do?" Asked Tony, "As you say, I can return to today because of some Alpha thing in my body.  What if I gave blood to Steve?"

"I've tried to give blood to Bucky," Steve shook his head, "It didn't work, but weakened the connection between Onega and me."

"Have you tried other body fluid?" Tony lowered his head a bit, looked up in Steve's face, "I mean...... eh...... like......" His arms turned in circles to gesticulate.

Steve reacted quickly.  He gave Tony a stern look but said nothing.

  
_Oh my god, is he blushing?_  Tony lifted his eyebrows staring at Steve's red ears.  "I don't mind giving up my body for a win, if I have someone so perfect like you......"

"You have to get ready before we find Omega.  You need to improve your survival skills on the battlefield, and you have to keep me alive, too.  "Steve interrupted Tony hurriedly," We are the only 'real' hope of mankind, Stark."

 

-TBC-


	6. Chapter 6

"I guess you haven't served in the army?"

"No, I haven't."

"Boy Scout?"

"Sorry, I don't like the pants."

"All right.  What would you like to do to kill time except working?  Box-……"

"Party, girls, and if hangover counts."

Steve's face darkened with sulkiness.  He forcibly swallowed the rest words 'boxing', 'free combat' and 'weight-lifting', "So I think you don't like running."

"You can't make a drunken man or night-owl get up early." Said Tony spreading his hands.

"This is unhealthy.  I heard you had a heart condition."

"I'm surprised, soldier.  You like reading gossip magazines?"

Steve looked anxious.  He looked at Tony again in frustration.  It seemed that he worried more about Tony's life-style rather than the training followed.

"No, you don't need to worry about this." Tony patted his chest.  "I have a completely self-sufficiency auto power pacemaker monitoring and protecting myself."

"What if something goes wrong?"

"This would never happen to me."

"No man is infallible here on earth, Stark."

"I made it, and I trust myself, Rogers."

 

The high-speed rotating mimic simulator robots rushed to Tony's right rear.  They moved fast and random.  It was impossible to guess their next move just with eyes.  They droned like real mimics.  When Tony wanted to fight back, he was knocked to the ground by another robot flew from the side.

"Stark!" Steve turned off the switch the first time. In no time, a high-pitched alarm sounded in the training hall.

Half a metre away from Tony the sharp sheet metal just barely stopped.

Tony was relieved.  He rolled over and lay there facing up.

"Are you all right?" Steve bypassed those huge metal tentacles, and went down on one knee beside Tony.  "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." Answered Tony with a sigh.  He grabbed Steve's outstretched hand and tried to stand up with Steve's help.  The pump piston of pneumatic manipulator joints moved faster and made a louder noise.  Tony staggered to his feet, shaken.  He nearly fell because of losing equilibrium, but Steve held his hands timely.  And then, Steve assisted him to stand upright again.

"You progress rapidly.  It's much better than I thought." Steve looked at Tony concernedly.  Tony looked too pale to continue this training.  "You need a rest."

"I can continue." Tony bit his underlip, frowned, clutched the burning assault rifle tightly.

Tony's knuckles whitened as he clenched his hands harder.  Steve noticed that.  "Don't stress too much, Tony." said he softly.  He tried to stroke Tony's hand back gently and took the assault rifle away from Tony when Tony relaxed and calmed down.  He threw the gun to the ground, "Take it easy."

"We're running out of time, Steve." Shoulders shivering, cheeks pale, Tony struggled to stay conscious, he looked up at Steve, but his caramel round eyes were losing focus, "No time to......" Finally he realized that the reason he shivered was not psychological causes, but it was too late.  He fell in a faint.

 

"He's just too tired, Steve.  There's no problem with his heart.  I promise."

"I hope so."

"You know that you don't have to worry about that, right?  Unless in the case of losing too much blood."

"… …"

"He'll have boundless opportunities to train himself.  It makes no sense to rush him now.  Maybe he should learn more fighting skills not only running and wielding his ax."

"It'll be a war of endurance.  Omega must be hiding deep within the European continent.  Tony's body can't sustain this long journey."

"Shhhh, keep it down."

Tony opened his eyes.  He had been stripped out from the suit yet.  He was lying in the infirmary.  The two men who were talking beyond the medical partition curtain should be Steve and Bruce - Wait!  Did Steve just call him 'Tony'?

Tony decided to pretend that he had just woken up and heard nothing.  He closed his eyes.  As he did so, he began to groan.  As expected, Steve ended this argument with Bruce and tore the curtain apart at once, "He awoke, Bruce!"

"Water... ..." Tony tried to low his voice.  Though he didn't need to do this, his voice was enough raucous.

"I'll be back soon!"

There was warm water moistened Tony's cracked lips before he had counted to twenty.  Tony opened his eyes slowly again.  He buried his face in his right hand because of the light.  With no deep thinking about the meaning behind this action, Tony felt embarrassed about the coming scene that Steve would be watering him.  He just wanted to conceal this strange emotion.

"Want more?" Tony saw through his finger tips that the gentle Dr. Bruce was holding a bottle of water in one hand and a silver spoon in the other hand sitting next to his bed. 

"... ..." Disappointed, Tony noticed that Steve was only standing straight at the foot of his bed with a clipboard in the hands.  Steve was reading it.  He didn't even look at Tony once. "Thank you, doctor." Tony sat up with his hands, took the bottle from Bruce - he really needed water.

"Stark," - always began with a fucking 'Strak'!  Tony clenched the bottle - "I think you don't need to spend time on suits-fighting training any more," Steve knocked on the clipboard with his index finger, "You have been familiar with the operating system already, and I believe that you must know about the weaponry and equipment not less than me."

"What shall I do now?" Tony told himself not to be distracted by irrelevancies.  It was not the right time.

"You need to enhance responsiveness, train your body's flexibility, strengthen speed and increase amount of exercise.  You need to learn how to keep up with mimics' movement, the most effective ways to kill them, and protect yourself." said Steve, put down the clipboard without emotion.

 

Tony and Steve stripped to their shirts and spent the rest time of that day on the training field.

This was the second time that Tony looked closely at Steve's well-muscled body and had the chance to make it clear that how Steve made his shirt nearly burst.  But all of that was nothing compared to Steve's eyes, thought Tony, they had the same crystal clear color as sapphire, and above them, there were also light-brown lush eyelashes.   _Maybe I've seen him before._   Tony exchanged the position of his hands to make the shillelagh incline forward slightly.

  
_Captain America, he is brave, gracious, just, I don't know, probably a little tender, damn it!  Does he treat others in the same way like this?_   Tony leapt forward.  But Steve moved his shield quickly, and the shillelagh glanced off.  When the shillelagh became slower, Steve grabbed it steadily.

Before Steve pulled it with more force, Tony had let go of the handle.  - "You cannot be stronger than mimics.  Don't waste your time or energy on the strength  competition." - Tony stepped back as quickly as possible to distance himself from Steve.  - "You have to stay away from the attacking range in consideration of their long tentacles." - Tony drew two paintball pistols on Steve's upper body and pulled the trigger in a very few seconds.  But all the paintballs just hit the shield, became red splatterings.  - "All of your attacks are for hitting the mark." - Steve silently count the shot, when the last paintball was missed again, he threw his shield the first time.

Tony was surprised.  He ducked subconsciously.  The shield passed his head and crashed into the wall behind.  But Tony hadn't ducked Steve's fist which was hided and followed behind the shield.  —— "You always need a plan B, Stark."

 

It was nearly midnight.  Tony collapsed on the only seat in Bruce's office.  He felt sore and ache all over, tired, weak and sleepy.  Upon falling asleep, Steve and Bruce had come back.

... ...

"There is no better way."

"But... ..."

"Don't, Bruce."

Tony smacked himself on the side of the cheek to make more awake, "Ok, what else will we do tonight?"

"You have to tell us all the details," said Bruce.  "About what will happen tomorrow."

"We have to make a summary and a battle plan." explained Steve.

"You can't die in the same place every time." added Bruce.

  
_Have I ever said that I'm a little bored with their tacit talking style?_   Tony rubbed his eyes.

 

"It's ridiculous!" said Bruce gravely, he crossed his arms, paced back and forth, walking around the room.  "You mean that almost all of the mimics in that area were attacking you and Steve?"

"I saw three fighting with the Avengers." said Tony thoughtfully, "Maybe four. But it didn't necessarily mean something."

"I've never seen such a behavior pattern of the mimics as this." mused Steve, his gaze fastened on the 3D virtual model of Manfredonia Bay.  "They always kill the targets with maximum efficiency - I mean, us.  They've never wasted resources for just one or two people."

"You said there is a strong telepathy between the Omega and Alpha," Tony offered a hypothesis.  "Maybe it's just a revenge.  You lost your super power which makes you easy to kill."

Everyone in the room had fallen silent.  Bruce looked at Steve anxiously, he opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but Steve stopped him.  "Stark," Steve looked Tony in the eye.  This made Tony feel a little uncomfortable.  "Look in my eyes, Stark." He found Tony avoiding him.  "Swear to anyone you like! Cross your heart! When you have the chance to finish the mission by yourself, do what you should do, no matter what happens."

"You are asking me to give up saving... ..."

"I said nothing.  Just ask for getting the priorities right."

"Obeying orders is not my style, Rogers." Tony slapped the hand which was grabbing his shoulders away.

"It was your style sent you to the front!  Don't you get it!?  This is not your ugly Stark Tower!"

Tony was raging like mad.  He couldn't accept the suggestion that Steve asked him to stop trying to save others, even Steve himself when it's necessary.  "I thought you were a hero!  How can you ask me to disregard others' lives!"

Steve's blue eyes looked down at him.  Tony couldn't understand it.  "Remember what I said, Stark." said Steve, almost begging.

Tony stormed off.

"I just don't want him to waste time saving me." Steve leaned his palm against his brow painfully, sat in the empty chair which Tony just left.

"Steve, you have to trust Stark." Bruce knew what had happened to Steve.  He tried to comfort his spiritless friend.

"He'll find," Steve put his hands over his face, "all the effort dooms to failure.  He shouldn't suffer from these."

 

The Howling Commandos' aircraft was full.  Tony still had to start for the front with the Avengers.  He felt that at least to this point he thanked Coulson for the arrangement.  He didn't want to see Steve for now.

"Look at this silent little guy.  What's in your suit then?" Sam's voice was so clear in the continuous engine noise.

At this moment, Tony remembered that he missed the opportunity to meet the Avengers.  "When you land, follow the others to the trench.  Don't fight alone." said Tony to Hulk.

"Wow, are you teaching us how to fight? " Clint whistled.

"No, I'm saving your lives." Tony pulled down the safety harness from his back.

"What are you doing, Stark?  We'll land soon!" roared Rhodes.

Tony stepped forward without the slightest bit of hesitation or conflict.  He pulled the gun from his belt, strode across the aisle.  "You two," he pointed to the back of the line, "untied your safety harnesses and re-tightened yourselves to the other side.  I'll only count to three.  One, two... ..." the words of Tony's shot like machine gun bullets leaving no chance for anyone to question.

"STARK, GO BACK IN YOUR PLACE!" Tony could hear Rhodes' voice, louder than the rest, yelling after him.  "Or you'll be the dead one!" Something was pressed up against the back of his neck, the space between the helmet and the suit.  It felt cold and hard.

"If I were you, I would go and get something to anchor myself." said Tony with a straight face, "Three."

Those two soldiers shared a single wordless look, and then untied their safety harnesses as soon as possible.  They walked away and, almost simultaneously. Their aircraft's tail got shot.

"Jump!  Right now!" Colonel Rhodes was the first man who had snapped out of shock.  He picked himself up and shouted like crazy, "Jump!  If you don't want to die here!"

He noticed that it was the position Tony had insisted the two guys should leave had been hit, "Where is Stark!  Anybody seen Stark?"

 

Tony was whirled away by the airflow which was instantaneous poured into the tail.  Because of the helmet, he could breathe freely when he was going into free fall.  But he was too flustered and tense to find the option of starting thruster.   _What the fuck!  Who designed this shit system!_  


Their portable battery was not sufficient to use thruster for a long time on account of the mechanical suit's energy dissipation problem.  Soldiers just relied on the boost acceleration to jump or sprint most of the time.  No one had tried to fly.  Nonetheless, it was good to slow down and helpful to keep balance.  Tony finally found the option without dying on the sea from a great high.

He had 'jumped' too early.  The ocean was very deep.  Tony sank straight like a cement stone.  The helmet was not waterproof.  Tony helplessly watched the brackish water trickling into his helmet and gradually flooded his chin.

The thruster could be used one last time.  Tony found the right direction to the coast quickly.  The rising water had flooded his mouth.  Tony raised his chin and took a deep breath, pressed the YES.

 

"What happened?" Steve saw a dripping wet Tony breathing heavily when he came out from the damaged aircraft.  Tony had thrown the helmet away as soon as he stepped onto the coast.  The water had ruined it.

"A little accident." Tony didn't want to argue about this with Steve now, he stepped forward, gun in hand.  "We are at war, Captain." He turned the gun to the mimic which was going to rush at them from the roof of the aircraft -

Steve pushed Tony away, wielded his glaive and splitted the alien's tentacle that reached out.  Tony just  froze for some reason, he gaped at his operating screen cutting to black completely after blinking twice, the air pump sighed like an old man, and then he found himself trapped in this metal husk.

"What have you done?!" Steve looked back until he killed the first attacker.  According to Tony's story, they would have three minutes at most to do something before the second attack, but Tony had been put out of action now.

 "I don't know, power off?" Tony winked hesitantly, he looked at Steve and hoped that if Steve could give him some advice based on the rich battlefield experience, "What should I do?"

"I don't know." Steve dropped the glaive, "Maybe you have to go through this over again." He pulled out a gun.

"Hold on!  Hold on!  Listen, you don't want to do this!  Don't, STEVE!!" Tony saw Steve holding the gun toward the centre of his forehead without emotion, the muzzle of it was dark and deep, it's hot and just had been used to kill a mimic.  He exploded into shouting uncontrollably, he wanted to stop Steve, but he couldn't move.

"You're right, I can't." Steve's hand trembled, he gave up the thought of killing Tony to restart, "I can't do it." he admitted.

"Let me do it." Tony knew he had done too much this time.  He reached out with all his might to catch Steve's wrist.  Steve was going to cover for him and fight alone.  Tony knew the Jericho switch was on Steve's chest, and he knew the password.  It was his baby, isn't it?  He was thrown into this bloody hell beacuse of this little thing.

Tony pressed the switch.

 

"Don't make me do this again, Tony... ..."

"Do what?  Kill me?"

"I can't do this."

 

-TBC-


End file.
